In recent years, it has been reported that under the influence of a chemical treatment with a hair color or a physical treatment by blowing or the like a loss of cuticles from hair surfaces, pores inside the hair due to an outflow of internal hair lipids, or a similar problem takes place and results in dry and loose hair, poor finger-through, low styling ease, a loss of sleekness, or the like.
Leave-on hair cosmetic compositions widely used at present include emulsion-type products containing a wax, higher alcohol, surfactant and the like and gels containing a film-forming polymer (hair-setting polymer) such that they impart styling ease to the hair and prevent dryness and looseness. These hair cosmetic compositions, however, are unable to substantially improve the sleekness and styling ease of the hair, although they can deposit an oil, fat or polymer on the hair surfaces and can temporarily resolve problems such as low styling ease, dryness and looseness.
Some hair cosmetic compositions are intended to modify the hair property. As those developed in attempting to achieve modifications by acting inside the hair, hair cosmetic compositions making use of a specific organic acid and organic solvent are known (see, for example, JP-A-1995-112921,JP-A-1994-172131,JP-A-1997-301831,and JP-A-1994-298625). They provide stiff and hardly manageable hair with suppleness and softness to facilitate hair styling.